Late one night, Craig Phelps and his four children were traveling in a remote part of the Texas panhandle. They never saw the approaching truck, and its driver never saw them. The children were thrown from the van.

In the terrible darkness, the parents followed the sounds of crying to their children. But their nine-year-old son was not crying. His neck was broken upon impact. Craig, a doctor, quickly tried to revive his son. But God's voice cut through the chaos: Jeremy is with Me, God seemed to say. You deal with those who are living. Forty-five excruciating minutes later the ambulance arrived.

The next day, their brother-in-law Don Moen, was on his way to the funeral by plane. He opened his Bible and his eyes fell on Isaiah 43:19. "I will make a road in the wilderness," Don read, "and rivers in the desert." A song immediately welled up within him.

After the sad service, Don embraced the bereaved parents. He managed to tell them that God had provided a song especially for them. And with a lump in his throat, he somehow sang the song that has now made its way around the world: